deadline white house with nicolle wallace begins right now. >> hi, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. all eyes are on the nation's capital where clashes are playing out in the house and senate over the impeachment of donald j. trump. the house all but certain to vote tomorrow on two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of congress. democrats getting a gust of wind at their backs today. brand new impeachment polling that shows 71% of americans would like the firsthand witnesses to donald trump's conduct to testify before congress. 64% of republicans would also like to hear from those witnesses. donald trump taking to a tactic he deploys for mostly special occasions that enrage him in ways he can't express through his tweets, sending a six-page letter rife with exclamation points to nancy pelosi this afternoon. a letter he signed all by

himself, not from white house lawyers or a spokesman today. in the house impeachment inquiry, warning of political consequences for democrats, smearing his rival joe biden and, of course, playing the victim card. president writing, quote, more due process was afforded to those accuse d in the salem with trials. also acknowledging that his letter is not likely to change the outcome of tomorrow's historic house vote but said he was sending it, quote, for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record. trump's letter comes as the house rules committee is hashing out the procedures for tomorrow's vote in a day-long hearing we're monitoring for you. and a showdown is shaping up in the senate as well, where republican leader mitch mcconnell today rejected democrats' call to subpoena key witnesses in a senate impeachment trial. mcconnell making this remarkable claim today. >> we do not need jurors to

start brainstorming witness lists for the prosecution and demanding to lock them in before we even heard opening arguments. it's not the senate's job to leap into the breach and search desperately for ways to get the guilty. that would hardly be impartial justice. >> that would hardly be impartial said the man who literally claimed on national television last week that he was not, will not be, has no plans to be impartial at all at any point in this, that he determined the outcome of the trial, will acquit the president and then announce the outcome on tv after admitting in the same interview that he was in constant contact with the white house. senator schumer making his case to hear from those witnesses that 71% of all americans said they want to testify. >> some republican senators have said while the charges are serious, they haven't seen enough evidence to make a

decision. that's one of the reasons i propose subpoenas for these witnesses and documents, all directly relevant, from officials who have yet to testify under oath during any stage of the house process. senators who oppose this plan will have to explain why less evidence is better than more evidence. >> that's where we start today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. former senior fbi official chuck rosenberg, msnbc legal analyst who worked at the southern district of new york, maya wiley. phil rucker and msnbc correspondent garrett haake on capitol hill. phil rucker, garrett haake, i'll start with you. it had letterechoes, to me, of . he took out the exclamation points and sort of dumped all of

his grievances into a single document, in his words, for the purposes of history. >> yeah. nicole, i would go so far as to say this may stand as one of those historical momentos of the trump presidency. this is an important document, six pages long. you're right in how you characterized it. it's almost like trump decided to take all the arguments he has made on twitter, at campaign rallies, on camera to reporters throughout this entire impeachment inquiry and jam it all together in this letter. he used every description he could come up with, from fake to fantasy, to illegal, to dangerous, to describe this impeachment inquiry. then at the end he acknowledged that he doesn't think his letter, his appeal, his protest is going to do much to persuade the outcome of tomorrow's vote. you know, he realizes that this is pretty much set and predetermined at this point that the democrats with the majority in the house are very likely, if not certain, to impeach him,

which would make him the third president in american history to be impeached, but he still came out, trying to torch the democrats, vowing that history would vindicate him and that voters would punish the democrats in next year's election. >> garrett haake, the polling on is so striking to me today, of all the messages democrats have been able to get through, it would appear their call for more witnesses, more testimony from people who were in the room is something that 71% of americans -- and i spent my career looking at polls. you don't get 71% of americans, you know, happy for the underdog in a sporting event. you don't get 71% of americans to agree on much of anything. 71% of americans would like for this trial to include the testimony of firsthand witnesses like john bolton, who called this ukraine deal a drug deal, like mick mulvaney, who went to the briefing room and talked in front of the press saying get

over it. this is how it's done. these witnesses now have not just the democrats in the senate looking for them, but 71% of the american public looking for them. >> yeah, nicole. i think that's the biggest impeachment-related number one way or another, that we've seen anywhere in this process. everything else about impeachment has hovered around that 50/50 mark. that's part of the reason both parties are so dug in. what's striking about that number being what it is, democrats have not in any sort of uniform, organized way, been questioning on the part of the witnesses. there's been too many moving parts here. democrats are trying to get the government funded, dealing with usmca. it's really only been this week with that letter from senator schumer to the majority leader that's started the political apparatus up here, forward-thinking about the senate trial and about trying to get what could not be gotten here. as i look at that and what mitch mcconnell and other republicans have said today, what it tells me is that this is not --

republicans are dug in on this. he's not pretending to be an impartial juror. he sees his job as political. democrats will have to be equally so. i think they have to make a very they'll have to go down to the senate and make a very direct case that the obstruction, the fact that these witnesses were prevented from coming to testify is so important for reason x, whatever "x" is. that's why we need these people particular. this is what we expect them to tell us, and target that message at that 71%. that's the kind of number that if it balloons even further could affect the four or five republican senators, which is all democrats need. they would need four republican senators to decide you know what? i do want to hear from these witnesses. that could get them across the finish line. that would be an enormous task. it would take a significant amount of focus across a holiday break, a very difficult thing to do politically. >> i want to press on how that happens mechanically and

technically. but i want to come back to these poll numbers to you, phil rucker, 61% of those in the poll would like to hear from these witnesses. i'm told that the whole game that they tried to get the president to focus on was to hold the senate, distract or deflect his attention from what was happening in the house, focus on the senate. if you have 64% of all republicans in this country, and that's a shrinking pool of people, 64% of that shrinking pool would like to hear from the witnesses, that has to be nearing the three to four votes that democrats would need on a vote to subpoena witnesses like john bolton. >> yeah, nicole. i don't think anything is set at this point in terms of the witnesses for the reasons you just laid out. we should keep in mind that there are a number of republican senators who, during this process over the next month are going to be looking for ways to show some semblance from their

party, cory gardner of colorado, mitt romney, senator of utah, who is always relatively independent, at least when it comes to speaking out about president trump. and they may be looking for a way to shape this process and provide a little bit of cover, even if ultimately they end up voting to acquit the president. so, there's a possibility, of course, that the parameters of the senate trial could shift before it opens in january to allow these witnesses, although mcconnell made it pretty clear this morning that he did not want to have witnesses come forward. >> garret, i wasn't a very good communicator, but i was a communicator for republicans for many years. if i had the task of messaging this for cory gardner or susan collins or mitt romney, who wanted to preserve their brand as not being trump hacks in states that aren't super psyched about trump hacks, i would advise them to say i'm not there on impeachment, but i am going to examine the facts and i can't examine them without a firsthand witness. so on this one vote, on this one

vote to subpoena firsthand witnesses like john bolton, i'm going to vote with the democrats because i reserve the right to acquit the president after hearing from them. are you hearing any effort on schumer's part to try to lay that foundation yet? >> reporter: there may be some. look, schumer is not exactly the most credible person to make that argument to a susan collins, mitt romney or cory gardner. schumer is in a tough spot. i would not want that job for anything. he has a minority. he's down four seats in the senate, where the majority calls the shots. he's being handed this incredibly hot potato by the house. he has to try to make the best of it. you'll see sub messaging on this. i think the house impeachment managers are really going to have to do a lot of this work, to the degree that you think that susan collins or cory gardner or mitt romney can be swayed. they're going to need to be swayed by evidence that's put in their face by the managers, not by democratic senators, who can be played up as the same political people they deal with every day.

that's not to say that the impeachment managers aren't political. if you want to be consistent, if you're susan collins, who has been saying all along, i'm going to wait and look at the evidence when it comes over here. okay. so democrats need to make that evidence, directly br present it to senators who will make that one small vote as clear as they possibly can. >> donnie, on the politics of this, vulnerable republicans have to message in the similar way of vulnerable democrats. that's where that intersection exists. elissa slotkin, what she did yesterday, there was anguish in that. i wonder how many republicans will be attracted to the same kind of messaging? let me put some of that up and then hear your thoughts. >> if this was a politic al. >> i reflect back on the oath that i have taken three times in my life. it is because of this oath i will be voting yes on both articles of impeachment.

>> elissa slotkin said yesterday if i know in my bones what's right i will vote yes even if that means i get voted out. >> here is your defense. i'm just doing my job. you know, i'm hoping to acquit the president. i'm a republican, and i don't -- but in order for me to do the job, i just want to hear more facts. voters are not stupid. by the way, it's interesting that 64% is contrast to the 35% that we know will vote for trump regardless of if he kills somebody or whatever else he's going to do. i don't understand the politics of not doing it. you stand up and once again you're cory gardner, mitt romney, you say look, this is what you guys pay me for. this is what i'm here for i want to hear the facts and i'm leaning toward acquitting. i hope i acquit. i'm wlt president. i stand with the president. but i can't stand for you, my

constituents, unless i do my job and hear more facts. i don't know any voter other than the crazies, if you will, that will not respond, okay, that makes sense. >> there's no legal context for people, for jurors, if we can still call them that after everything that mcconnell has said about senate republicans lately. and i think politically, senate republicans will be digging out of mcconnell's messaging the last six days. but there's no parallel for jurors to make a decision without at least being interested in or open to evidence, is there? >> go ahead. >> i don't know, jeff. you go. i'm going to end up agreeing with you. the jurors don't have a choice. they don't have a choice. first of all, they don't have a choice because they're instructed by the judge that they have to take the facts and evidence and the judge decides what they can hear. and i think what -- >> who would that be in this case, roberts? >> not really. it's actually the senators themselves. i think this is why -- i mean,

in practical terms, technically, it's justice roberts, but because the senate rules allow the senate with 51 votes to overrule any decision roberts makes, it's really not roberts. right? in a court of law, normally, you would not have that power if you were also the jury saying, i don't like that ruling that you're giving me on evidence. i'm going to make up my own. and if i were the democrats on the other side, i think what i would use these polls for is to drive home if you, if you, nicole, were covorting with a foreign government, to help you win, say, a congress iional sea you would be before a jury and a judge and you would not have a choice or an ability to keep anyone with information from testifying to that jury. and the american public, i think one of the reasons we see that poll number is they don't like to hear that people in power have privileges they don't. and that's actually what's happening here. >> i just think it's so

interesting. if donald trump -- donald trump doesn't care about anyone but himself. he doesn't care about anyone's political fate but his own. he is done, he disposed of john bolton. if he thought john bolton could help him, he would demand he show up. mike pompeo is still in the fold. if he thought mike pompeo's testimony would benefit him this much, he would send him up there for round-the-clock testimony. >> the person that can help him the most is the senate majority leader. to maya's point, i'm agreeing with you -- >> get these lawyers together. >> prosecutors. chief justice roberts -- >> it's like -- >> i know. >> chief justice roberts is both the presiding judge and can be overruled like that by the senate. it's almost as if you had a baseball team in the field who

decided they didn't like the umpire's call. was it a ball? we're going to take a vote. 9-0, we think it's a strike. >> what if four people from the other team say we want to will win as bad as they do, but we're not going to cheat. >> that can happen on individual issues. for instance, if they want to hear a witness or two. that could happen on an evidentiary ruling. in the end that doesn't seem like that can happen in order to have the president removed from office. and so really, everything the president needs is in the person of mitch mcconnell, everything. he might lose a vote or two on a procedural matter. he might have to suffer through a witness or two in the last part of the trial. remember, too, here is another really odd distinction. maya was talking about jurors and what they can and can't do. jurors in federal criminal trials don't come with any knowledge of the case in front of them. >> right. they're sequestered basically, right? >> they can't be opined about

it. by the way if they have a view, they don't get to sit on the jury. the judge gets rid of them. we talk about this in legal terms, evidence, hearsay, witnesses and procedure and really it's just a political process by design. i don't mean that's bad or good but that's where the founders put it, in the senate. >> i guess the political piece of that is if you suddenly had witnesses like bolton saying damn right i sent fiona hill to the counsel's office, had her sit down with mr. isenberg and have her sit down to make sure we didn't face -- why did he do that? i was never sent to the counsel's office to report on anybody's conduct. as you're saying it's not a legal process. to have a witness like that could change the political dynam dynamics. >> it could. theoretically, it could. >> i'm not saying get him convicted but if two republicans vote to convict, it is a bipartisan vote on conviction. this letter, maya, is like that letter that your best girlfriend or guy friend writes to their

ex. read this. tell me what you think and you're like, good god, don't send it. the process was in writing it. have a process of wine and then they call you back, i hit send. you didn't. that's what in his head. i'm innocent. they're guilty. it's rigged. they're mad. i'm going to get you. it's not as if the president doesn't feel like his side hasn't been heard or hasn't been aired but he's relying on essentially mob tactics. this is my guys have got this. we've got it wired and we basically want to prevent the other side or the public from hearing all the evidence from the witnesses. >> yes. and, actually, if it was my girlfriend, i would be in her apartment, taking her computer out of her hands and putting a drink in it myself so that she wouldn't hit send. i mean, this is -- one of the things that i think is so striking about it, this is the president, who refused to either appear or send his lawyer to appear on his behalf to the

house judiciary committee. it's not that he didn't have an opportunity to share his view of the facts and of the defense. so, this is his testimony. i mean, he has essentially put a document out there saying this is what i've got to say on it. you made the point earlier, he's not saying anything new. he's saying the things he has always said. >> this shows you his impotence. when he sues what does he do? countersues, punches back. you could picture him calling his people saying can't we arrest nadler? can't we do this? can't we do this? all that he was left with is a letter. he is in a state of -- he talks about the republic suffering. he is suffering through ksh if you know him and his mentality, he just wants to fight. he wants to kill and all he's got is a letter. that's his only move and it's kind of pathetic. >> and why he's facing impeachment. that's essentially what he was doing with regard to his re-election. >> phil rucker, garrett haake, let me give you the last word.

phil, has the white house abandoned their notional sort of urges for a lengthy trial featuring witnesses like the whistle-blower and adam schiff and the bidens? >> nicole, it still is very much in flux. i wouldn't say abandoned entirely. nothing is ever fully abandoned in the world of donald trump, but certainly there are advisers and others who have been trying to convince trump to trust the process and to trust mcconnell, that mcconnell is the leader of the senate, has trump's best interests at heart and in mind. if they feel like the best way to get trump in this politically is to have the shorter trial with fewer opportunities for risk or explosive new testimony, then trump ought to trust that. but certainly it's not off the table and there continue to be discussions about whether to have witnesses, which witnesses and how long that might go.

>> and, garret, is the -- is the dynamic between schumer and mcconnell as rigid as it appears in all the reporting there is today, that there will be nothing discussed, nothing worked out, that mcconnell has nothing to give and schumer now with this new polling can make his case a public and political one? >> the short answer is yes. republicans were caught off guard that schumer took his case public before the two of them had sat down to try to hash any of this out. and now it's brass knuckles. now it's okay, we're going to have this fight out in public for the rest of the way. democrats will get a bit of a boost, i think, in this vote tomorrow. it looks like the only democrats that they'll lose on the house side are the two who voted against starting this inquiry. one is jeff van drew, who is about to not be a democrat anymore. we can debate for hours how that will play out. these folks in tough districts, freshmen, have decided to stick together. that will give democrats a bit

of a boost as we head into the holiday. like i said before, maintaining that momentum over christmas break where all these members leave town and the president has the bully pulpit to himself could be tricky. >> garrett haake, phil rucker, thanks for starting us off. on the eve of the big impeachment vote, rudy giuliani draws donald trump deeper into one of the flashpoints at the heart of his impeachment, smearing and removal of ambassador marie yovanovitch. more calls from inside the house. group of senior republican strategists pledge to help democrats defeat trump at the ballot box. we'll talk to one of them and the 2020 candidates for president try to wedge themselves in. we'll tell you what they're saying. all those stories, coming up. cp ♪

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i do not understand mr. giuliani's motives for attacking me, nor can i offer an opinion about if he believed the allegations against me. >> this hit list is that you forced out marie yovanovitch. >> of course i did. >> you're a personal attorney for the president. why did you need her out of the way? >> i didn't need her out of the way. i forced her out because she's corrupt. >> mr. giuliani should have known those claims were suspect coming, as they reported will, from individuals with questionable motives and with reasons to believe their political and financial ambitions would be stymied by our anti-corruption policy. >> there's no question that she was acting corruptly in that

position and had to be removed. she should have been fired if the state department weren't part of the deep state. >> all the president has to do is say he wants a different ambassador, and in my line of work, perhaps in your line of work as well, all we have is our reputation. and so this has been a very painful period. >> who do you believe? it's a stunning side by side. a respected, decades-long civil servant, reflecting on a career tarnishing smear campaign against her and the president's personal attorney on fox last night, essentially confessing to all of it, being the driving force behind that campaign. earlier, giuliani told "the new yorker," quote, i believe i needed yovanovitch out of the way. she was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody. by now you probably realize giuliani has a talent, either wittingly or unwittingly, for revealing embarrassing information about himself and his client during tv interviews. and not only did he confess to

having a hands-on role in one of the most explosive moments in the ukraine saga, he also seemed to draw donald trump even deeper into the muck by raising new questions about what trump knew and when trump knew it. "the new york times" reports giuliani spoke to trump a couple of times earlier this year about how joe van vich had frustrated efforts that could be politically helpful to the president. "the times" writes, quote, the president in turn connected mr. giuliani with secretary of state mike pompeo, who asked for more information. mr. giuliani said. within weeks, ms. yovanovitch was recalled as ambassador at the end of april and was told that mr. trump had lost trust in her. the most recent trip was brought up at the rules committee today for impeachment. >> mr. chairman, we present you not just with high crimes and misdemeanors, but a constitutional crime in

progress, up to this very minute, mayor giuliani, the president's private lawyer, fresh from his overseas travel looking to rehabilitate, once again, the discredited conspiracy theories at the heart of the president's defense, admitted he participated directly in the smear campaign to oust ambassador yovanovitch from her job. >> that's part of this i don't understand. if rudy giuliani is under investigation for conduct that donald trump ultimately carried out, the smearing and firing of yovanovitch, how is donald trump's conduct not under investigation by law enforcement? >> you know, it may well be. i don't know specifically that it is. we do know from the mueller report and, actually, from a filing report in the gates matter there are ongoing sealed criminal investigations. i think it's a really fair question. i don't mean to suggest that i know that the president is under criminal investigation, but you're right. to seems like a crime.

it seems to be ongoing. it seems like the president's hand-picked attorney is helping to foster it. can i just say one thing? >> yeah, please. >> we talk so often about rudy giuliani. can i say one thing about marie yovanovitch? >> please. >> what she said is so true. in that line of work, the line of work we did, all you have is your reputation. and so for their own convenience, to line their own pockets, for their own political grandisement, they smeared her. that hurts. you can hear it in her voice, see it on her face. can you get yourself in trouble doing everything right and have a bad outcome which ruins your reputation. you can make hard decisions based on imperfect information. everything goes wrong and it ruins your reputation. she did nothing wrong except that she crossed paths with criminals and all she had was

her reputation, and they decided she had to be removed. as she said, all the president had to do was fire her. all he had to do was say i'm going a different direction. there's somebody else i would like to serve in that post. they didn't do that. they smeared her. that's disgusting. >> they're beyond criminals. they're soulless. it was interesting, the call coming out of that and you go, who do you believe? you can't be a human watching that woman and watching giuliani and not decipher the two. we've talked so much about the fall of rudy giuliani and where he was, where he is now. i can't remember watching a public figure more reprehensable, more soulless, more evil -- trump, of course -- than rudy giuliani. it took this one example, not to lie and cheat but to take, clearly, a selfless woman, clearly, and just literally try and destroy her. you are bankrupt as a human. forget as a politician, forget

as a republican, forget as an attorney or prosecutor. you are bankrupt and soulless. >> maya? >> you know, one of the things in just picking up on these important points is in the u.s. attorneys' office one of the things that you are constantly mindful of is the extreme amount of power you have in that office to destroy innocent people. and you spend a lot of time, that's why you don't comment on ongoing investigations. that's why you keep your mouth shut unless and until you're prepared to make a public statement in the form of an indictment. and what rudy giuliani has done is actually to spit on the honor of the office that he once filled by doing exactly that to marie yovanovitch. i do want to go back to the substantive point you're raising which is, one, we know that the justice department will not, will not bring criminal charges against a sitting president based on a memorandum.

we can debate whether or not we think that's legally right or wrong, constitutionally. the point is if and to the extent donald trump is engaged in criminal activity and if you look at the articles of impeachment, what are underlying in the statements of abuse of power are charges of crime. i mean, that's what, essentially, bribery is. and they use the terms of bribery. there's a great piece that barbara mcconveyed and others participated in, saying what the crimes might be if it was ordinary citizens and so this is the only mechanism available to the american people, to know what happened and whether trump should be removed. >> speaking of all that, this is a group motivated largely by this dynamic of a president above the law. we're making big moves. one of them is here. donald trump's conservative c t

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donald trump is a phony, fraud. his promises are as worthless as a degree from trump university. is he playing the members of the american public for suckers. he gets a free ride to the white house and all we get is a lousy hat. he has neither the temperament or judgment to be president and his personal qualities would mean that america would cease to be a shining city on a hill. >> there are literally hours of tape like that of what real republicans, republicans at the highest level of the republican party, used to sound like on the very specific topic of donald trump and not just that donald trump as president. it's that republican party that a new group called the lincoln project is hoping to revive. the lincoln project launched today, formed by several of trump's fiercest conservative critics has already raised over $1 million in its pursuit to

defeat donald trump in the next election. some of the group advisers laid out their case in an op-ed. this effort asks all americans of all places, creeds and ways of life to join in the seminal task of our generation, restoring to this nation leadership and governance that respects the rule of law, recognizes the dignity of all people and defends the constitution and american values at home and abroad. over these next 11 months, our efforts will be dedicated at defeating president trump and trumpism at the ballot box and to elect those patriots who will hold the line. our peril far outstrips any past differences. it has arrived at our collective doorstep and we believe there is no other choice. joining the table, gop strategist, who else founded this with you? >> myself, steve schmidt, john weaver, reed galen, jennifer

foren. hated republican establishment spent a lot of the years in the fields helping republican get elected every level from president on down to dog catcher. and all of us have had a long-running issue with the fact that donald trump doesn't represent any of the values that the republican party once claimed that it stood for, once claim that it worked for and has, in fact, flipped those values on their head and turned this once great party into a personality cult. we recognize you have a long road to rebuild something that matters as an active, positive force in american society, instead of being something that is dedicated to the sole defense of a man who is overtly criminal, overtly corrupt and who has diminished the office of the presidency and diminished this country in meaningful ways. >> i have a million questions for you, but one, is it your position that if you really believe that donald trump is as dangerous as i know all of you, and i feel the same way, then the only intellectually honest

position is i will vote for anyone who opposes him. i think i said two years ago that if they nominate beto o'rourke's bus, i will vote for it. >> that's part of it. the other part of it is that donald trump has a lot of people who are getting away with murder right now. a lot of people who go out or in private -- republicans who say i can't stand him. this is wrong. this is bad. this is evil. then they go out, put the red hat on and pretend all is good in the world. they go out and furrow their brows, certain senators from maine, and say isn't this awful? then they vote the way donald trump wants them to vote. they do -- today this entire senate process we're seeing emerge right now, there are no heroes in the republican party right now. and some of those folks need to understand that there is a political cost to being part of donald trump's orbit. >> how do you make them pay? how do you do that?

>> in ways that the democratic party isn't as always skillful at. nobody mistakes us for folks who pull any punches when it comes to negative advertising. >> what's the message? >> the message is simple, that nothing is more important than the removal of donald trump from office. he is a proximate danger to this country. even if it makes us ideological uncomfortable, whose politics we don't 100% agree with in office for a little while weerk need to make the steps right now before donald trump is able to do incredibly cataclysmic damage. >> will you see you advertising for elizabeth warren or -- >> you'll see a whole binch bunch of messages. some of them will surprise people. we'll be look for ways to advocate for a post-trump environment, post-trump country. it's not just about partying. all of us could have made the easiest decision in the world

and kept our mouth shut and kept making plenty of money. this isn't about, you know, us trying to get back into power in the gop. we really don't care about that at this point. none of us are worried about trying to put the paddles on the dead animal that is trump's gop. we hope we can some day rebuild something new. >> help to kill the diseased party. >> look, when something has gang gree ganggrene, you have to cut it off. >> here is what i struggled with. 2018, you look at what worked, kitchen table issues. >> sure. >> the most passionate, high-minded argument, save our democracy, how do you thread that back to the voters who don't have -- >> sure. >> -- the moral luxury? that's the thing. you have to turn to me his criminality, his destruction of democracy to how it affects you. conservative republicans, much smarter than democrats, how do you threat thread that needle? >> a lot of this is talking about things that are impacting

real people. in wisconsin or iowa, you're not just saying trump is evil and must be destroyed. you're saying this is a guy who promised you that you would have greatness. and what has he done? he sent your farms into bankruptcy. we go to places where in pennsylvania where the steel miners -- coal miners and steel manufacturers thought donald trump is going to restore our industries to greatness. what have they gotten? they've gotten screwed to the wall. >> let me translate this for anyone at home. they're opening up the secret of republican campaigns and putting them to use to defeat the republican president. don't go anywhere. more of this on the other side of the break. r side of the break apps are used everywhere...

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ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. an "unjection™". woi felt completely helpless.hed online. my entire career and business were in jeopardy. i called reputation defender. vo: take control of your online reputation. get your free reputation report card at reputationdefender.com. find out your online reputation today and let the experts help you repair it. woman: they were able to restore my good name. vo: visit reputationdefender.com or call 1-877-866-8555. if donald trump is re-elected he will fundamentally alter the character of this nation. if we give donald trump four more years, this will not be the country envisioned by washington. this will not be the nation bound together by lincoln. this will not be a nation lifted

up by roosevelt or inspired by kennedy. this will not be the nation of barack obama toward justice. >> in an effort to take our eyes off of how this is affecting our lives. the more we're talking about him, the less we're talking about you. >> if we don't stop donald trump this time, shame on us. americans deserve a president who has their back, who isn't afraid to take on powerful forces, who has a record of bringing people together. >> i think the democrats are listening. i think those messages are very effective, i think they line up very much with what you guys are talking about. i understand you vote your pocketbook, job security. i think those messages are the right way to make the anti-trump case. >> let me contrast biden versus the other two. what biden had and the other two didn't have is this, the heart. you talk to their minds but grab

them in the heart. >> biden went there, the kkk. he went all the way there. >> obviously he's talking to his african-american base. >> or anyone offended by the kkk. >> but you really -- that is, to me, was done in an artful way. you can do what -- in advertising we have what's called the brand overall campaign. then you can have the product advertising underneath it for the health care, the prescription drugs. but to me, that was the strongest message i've seen from him. he's kind of the guy who can deliver that. that ad is called the soul of america. i thought it was a great ad. >> a lot of what should be available to democrats are nonpartisan voters, people who are simply offended and horrified by the onslaught of attacks on the rule of law. ignoring your generals. not listening to the military when it comes to a justice system for war criminals. what is the silent, moderate,

nonpolitical sentiment about these sorts of appeals? >> the values of america, right? who are we as a country, if not putting ideology aside, as the people who love this country because what it represents is fairness, is justice, is the country that gives the promise that we can all live here. we can all be here. we can all be part of it. >> to send the message out that at the end of the day, are we "we the people" or are we us and them? >> the best ad will be contrasting morning america and evening america. that's what biden was trying to touch on, what four more years will look like. you take the exact words and

frighten the bejesus out of people. >> he will try to take the mantle and say the stock market is up, my numbers are this and i've done that. the exact the exact story is how you relate the damage he's done to this country to ordinary people. >> we can't take four more years. >> what will america look like? guys with tiki torches? will it look like the edmond pettus bridge? will it look like something affirmative or darker? it tells the story of trump making america a darker and more hateful place. >> do you make his mental fitness a part of it? >> i think donald trump makes his mental fitness an issue every single day. that letter he sent to the house is six pages of pure, crazy, weapons-grade nuts. any campaign that has a candidate so deeply involved with his own branding at every

moment as donald trump, he's always vulnerable to that kind of attack. >> all right. rare and potentially reassuring statement about the secret fisa court, we'll bring that to you next. if you have moderate to severe psoriasis,

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some news we wanted to get to in our last moments, a story we cover all the time. a rare statement in the last hour about the secret fisa court

after a doj watchdog raised serious concerns. today the fisa court ordering the fbi to make prompt changes to address the inspector general's concerns, after fbi director christopher wray acknowledged criticisms against the bureau, vowed swift action and proposed a series of at least 40 specific targeted reforms. and that was just his start, he said. together the responsiveness of the fbi and the fisa court to the serious flaws uncovered by the ig stand in stark contrast to the attacks of donald trump and his attorney general. >> the fisa court has to be fixed quickly. the problems uncovered by the inspector general are specific. that say the, the law and complex, the policies and procedures are complex. the organizational structure that was built to process fisa warrants is complex. here's what worries me, nicolle,

that the fix makes it more complex. in some ways you need to take this really difficult process and simplify it and ascribe individual responsibility for getting this stuff right. too many cooks in the kitchen, too many people touching pieces of fisas. even with the best of intent, and i believe these men and women are for the most part overwhelmingly well-intended, the thing moves too slowly and through too little portal, and mistakes are being made. >> how important is this tool, this ability to surveil a suspected criminal? >> unbelievably important. >> life and death? >> life and death. we use it in national security, counterintelligence and counterterrorism. it's an incredibly important tool which is exactly why the fbi needs to fix it and make sure that the fisa court judges have confidence in this process. >> and then by extension, the public. >> and congress and the media and the american people who are benefiting from this process. >> all right. we are going to sneak in our

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this is possibly the most important news of the hour. my friend and colleague rachel maddow tonight will interview former fbi lawyer lisa page. it is her first live tv interview. it's tonight. don't miss it. you're crazy if you do. we'll show you some of it here tomorrow. my thanks to donnie, rick, chuck, maya. "mtp daily" with chuck todd starts now. welcome to tuesday. it is "meet the press daily" and i'm chuck todd. we're on the eve of an historic vote in the united states house of representatives who will be impeaching the president for